Category Archives: Arts and Culture

10 Video Game Firsts

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By Gordon Cameron

First job, first kiss, first pet — firsts are a big part of life, and so it is with games.

From MMOs to Madden, from sophisticated CG cinematics to gritty shooters, gaming’s biggest franchises, genres, and techniques all had to get started somewhere. Journey back in time with us as we excavate the obscure origins of the gaming world we take for granted today.

First 3D shooter: Wolfenstein 3D

Conventional wisdom holds that the first true first-person shooter — combining texture-mapped 3D graphics, a first-person perspective, and arcade-quick shooter action — was id Software’s seminal hit, Wolfenstein 3D. And, as it happens, conventional wisdom is mostly correct. Sort of.

Shortly before the release of Wolfenstein 3D (which is itself based on the classic 8-bit adventure Castle Wolfenstein), id took a dry run at the same technology with 1992’s Catacomb 3D, a fantasy shooter in which gamers battled enemy goblins with an arsenal of fireballs. All the pieces of the genre were already more or less in place, but Catacomb lacks the visible firearm and ammunition counter that make Wolfenstein seem so familiar to today’s Call of Duty devotees.
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Why Google’s Nexus 7 Tablet Is Hotter Than Apple’s iPad

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By Robert Hof

For once, an Apple product isn’t the hottest piece of hardware on the scene. This week, at least, that highly enviable status goes to Google‘s new Nexus 7 tablet. According to reports, several retailers are sold out of the 7-inch tablet, and even Google’s own online store only has the cheaper 8-GB version.

Of course, you have to remember that selling out doesn’t mean much without knowing how many sold out. This is a classic Apple ploy, though to give Apple credit, it usually turns out later that it sold a ton of whatever sold out. No matter, selling out a product shortly after its release still works great as a marketing tool, as you can see from the coverage gushing about “incredible demand.”
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Facebook stock has highest close since May 21

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NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook closes at one of its highest prices since its initial public offering.

The stock rose $1.21, or 3.8 percent, to finish Friday at $33.05. It hasn’t closed above that price since May 21, the second day of trading.

The stock finished the week up 10 percent, the second straight week of increase.

Facebook is still 14 percent below its IPO price of $38 a share.

Facebook’s IPO has had a rocky ride. Its debut was delayed by trading glitches on the Nasdaq.

Investors have been concerned about its ability to increase revenue and make money from its growing mobile audience, though many analysts hold positive long-term opinions.

Facebook, along with investment banks that led the IPO, is the subject of dozens of shareholder lawsuits.

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‘Dark Knight Rises’ Producer: Nolan Will Never Direct Batman Again

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by Ethan Anderton

It’s pretty bold to say that something will never happen whether you’re talking about something as simple as eating meat or making a movie. But in the case of The Dark Knight Rises producer Emma Thomas, who is also the wife of Christopher Nolan, we’re inclined to believe her statement that the filmmaker will never be in the director’s chair of another Batman film following the conclusion of his trilogy. In an interview with SFX Magzine (via Movies.com), Thomas was asked of the possibility of Nolan returning to the universe of the Caped Crusader and she definitively said, “No, never. No, that’s truly a never.”

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Macbook Pro with Retina Display review

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Apple ports Retina Display technology from iOS to the Mac, and the results are nothing short of spectacular

by J.R. Bookwalter

Apple again cemented its reputation as manufacturer of lust-worthy electronics with the introduction of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display before 5,000 jubilant developers at this year’s WWDC keynote. But is the latest model worth the extra dough, especially with several key features missing in action that pro users depend upon?

The answer depends on how deep your pockets are, with the sleek new model starting at $2199 and topping out at $3749 (before tax) including build-to-order options (faster processor, more memory, higher capacity storage). However, if you rely on CD or DVD media, Gigabit Ethernet or FireWire 800, you’ll want to budget $137 on top of that to replace features lost as a result of slimming down the notebook by 25 percent.
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E3 2012: New Samsung Cloud Gaming Smart TVs to Compete with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Consoles

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by John Gaudiosi

The company enters the video game business with a product that offers hundreds of streaming games through Gaikai cloud service.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., is showcasing its cloud-based gaming service, Samsung Cloud Gaming, at E3 2012. Samsung Cloud Gaming, developed in partnership with Gaikai, a leading cloud-based video game platform provider, will stream a mix of family-friendly and AAA video games directly to owners of 2012 Samsung LED 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the U.S. Within 12 months over 40 million TVs are expected to be able to stream console-quality hit games without needing any console or upgrades.
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Fujitsu, Dell ‘Ivy Bridge’ ultrabooks point to hybrid HDDs

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Hybrid storage systems will become common on Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks.

by Brooke Crothers

With Fujitsu today announcing new ultrabooks based on Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processor in Japan and Dell’s XPS 14 Ivy Bridge ultrabook imminent in the U.S., it is becoming apparent that spinning hard drives are back in vogue for these slim laptops.

The 0.6-inch thick, 3-pound Fujitsu UH75/H ultrabook comes with a Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) chip, a 14-inch display with resolutions up to 1920×1080, and a 500GB hard disk drive with a solid-state drive cache for the base model.

That last storage specification matches a similarly-configured Dell XPS 14 ultrabook model that is expected to be announced imminently. And already-announced HP Envy laptops.
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